It should be noted that the Earth Science Photos archives began in 1999, therefore, they are "highlights" for 1978 - 1998.

2000 Images

2000 Earthpics Part 2 :: Please note that images are chronicled from most to least recent.     EO-1 First Light Images Hyperspectral image of a mountainous region of Argentina taken on December 1, 2000. For more pictures and a detailed explanation, go to the EO-1 First Light Image page. For the press release, go to EO-1's Public Affairs homepage.   First Dose of Winter in the East SeaWiFS captured this image on December 20, 2000 of the snowfall that blanketed the Northeastern U.S. TRMM Satellite Provides Five Years of Rainfall Data Because El Niņos and La Niņas have a major impact on flooding and drought distribution around the world, Adler's findings have implications for better water resource management in the future. The findings will also assist in planning disaster relief and preparations for vector-borne disease outbreaks when flooding and extreme heat is predicted.  For more on this story, go to the Public Affairs TRMM Rainfall Map website. 2000 December Goddard From Space   Click on pic to enlarge 2000 December Great Lakes Effect   Lake-effect snow occurs when cold dry air passes over a larger warmer lake and picks up moisture and heat. Clouds build overhead and eventually develop into snow showers as they move downwind. The image was enhanced and rendered at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The SEAWiFS sensor is carried aboard the OrbView-2 satellite. 05 December 2000 Eastern U.S. In the Grips of Old Man Winter   Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE taken on November 21, 2000 Greenland Not So Green   A SeaWiFS pass over Greenland collected by the ground station in Resolute in northern Canada on July 15th, 2000 produced this image.  Click on pic to enlarge image. This image provided by  the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE. 2000 November Florida Cloudless The only thing not obscuring Florida these days is clouds... 14 November 2000 Shenandoah Fires The biggest cloud in the Washington D.C. region seems to be the one coming from the fires in Shenandoah National Park.  This image provided by  the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE. 2000 November Fall Foliage from Space Just in time for Halloween: View Fall foliage from space. (images and movies) 2000 October Cloudless U.S. Most of the eastern U.S. was cloud free October 11.  Such widespread cloudlessness in this part of the world is rare. These clear skies are associated with a region of high pressure over the eastern central U.S. 11 October 2000 New Space Views of Southeast Asian Flood Aid United Nations Disaster Relief Effort (Details)  For more images of the flooding, click on flooding. 11 October 2000 Cloudless Outer Banks as Eyed By SeaWiFS   04 October 2000 NASA Scientist Predicts Less Climate Cooling From Clouds Don't count on clouds to come to the rescue if the Earth's current climate warming trend continues. That's according to new NASA research published in the October 1st issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate. (Details) 1 October 2000   NOAA-16 Sends Back First Image    (Details) 21 September 2000 NASA Satellite Data Used Operationally to Help Combat Fires in the West This visible light/infrared composite image over Montana and Idaho was acquired by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Aug. 23. The image shows the locations of actively burning wildfires (red pixels) and the thick shroud of smoke they produced (grey-blue pixels). Click on pic to enlarge. There was no Labor Day holiday for firefighters battling dozens of blazes that have consumed hundreds of thousands of acres across Montana and Idaho. But fire officials did get some assistance from an unexpected source as scientists from NASA, NOAA, the USDA Forest Service and the University of Virginia teamed up to provide them with new observations of the fires from NASA's Terra satellite. This marked the first time data from the recently-launched spacecraft were used operationally in a crisis situation. (Details) 12 September 2000 Australia from Space in All Her Olympic Glory Click on pic to enlarge Image Courtesy of SeaWiFS and ORBIMAGE 15 September 2000 Typhoon Saomai Gets Nasty Typhoon Saomai is bringing nasty weather to Japan.  This image by SeaWiFs shows the location of the typhoon on September 12, 2000. 12 September 2000   Largest-Ever Ozone Hole Observed Over Antarctica Click on pic to enlarge Details 06 September 2000 Burn Scars Visible from Space Click on pic to enlarge Burn scars left behind by the Idaho and Montana wildfires are clearly visible in this SeaWiFS image taken September 7, 2000.  This image along with those documenting the spread of the fires can be seen on the SeaWiFS homepage at: http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html 07 September 2000 Arabian Sea Gets Dusty SeaWiFS captured this dust cloud blowing out over the Arabian Sea from Oman last March.   Texas Wildfires Create Smoke Plumes Smoke plumes are evident spewing over the Gulf of Mexico from wildfires in Texas and Louisiana.  Click on pic to enlarge image.  Image courtesy of SeaWiFS and Orbimage. Swirling Skies Near Ireland SeaWiFS saw this low pressure system over the North Atlantic northwest of Ireland August 31. 31 August 2000 Western Wildfires Increase Throughout August The first set of images show the increase in fires in the Midwest from August 2 through August 22. Seen by NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the OrbView-2 satellite, these images capture the plumes of smoke that extend east.  The National Interagency Fire Center reported 84 fires burning in 14 states within 1.7 million acres of land as of today.  Click on image to enlarge. This image from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) shows high aerosol concentrations resulting from smoke on August 27. Visit the TOMS homepage  and click on "Global Aerosol Hot Spots" to see the concentration of fires from Aug. 25 through Aug. 28. 2000 August Typhoon Prapiroon   August 30th's SeaWiFS image shows Typhoon Prapiroon over the East China Sea. 30 August 2000 Mediterranean Dust and Smoke The SeaWiFS web site  has a spectacular image of the Mediterranean Sea on August 25th showing smoke from fires on the Algerian coast as well as lots of dust. SeaWiFS pic can be enlarged by clicking on it.   TOMS is therefore seeing not just dust but a combination of smoke and dust over the Mediterranean. The other TOMS image of August 25th shows a larger area, and smoke from fires in Greece can be seen in the southwest of that country.  25 August 2000 Tropical Storm Debby Weakens in the Atlantic Click on pic to enlarge image 22 August 2000 Two Storms and the Fires   This image shows SeaWiFS view of the smoke in Idaho and Montana on August 15 as well as views of what have become Tropical Depression Hector and Tropical Storm Ileana.   The second image, taken August 15 by TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer), is of the aerosol output (airborne microscopic dust and smoke) from the fires. Click for TOMS homepage. This image can be enlarged by clicking on it. 15 August 2000   Hurricane Alberto  SeaWiFS imaged Hurricane Alberto as it churned the atmosphere east of Bermuda. 11 August 2000 Just South of Japan This is the SeaWiFS view of Typhoon Ewiniar to the south of Japan August 11. The remnants of Jelawat can still be seen over eastern China in the upper left corner of the image.  Credit: Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE 11 August 2000 Tracking Fire Trends From Space This image shows fire danger around the United States, based on data collected between July 20th and 27th, 2000. Red areas indicate where fire potential is greater and green areas show places where the threat is lower. This fire potential map is based on the Soil Moisture Index (SMI). SMI is derived from temperature and vegetation measurements taken by NOAA's satellite-based Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR).  For more information, go to:  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov Click on pic to enlarge image. 08 August 2000 Smoke from Idaho and Montana Stretches for 1000 Miles Dense smoke from Idaho and western Montana is visible stretching all the way to Iowa and Minnesota in this image from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the OrbView-2 satellite This image was approximately at 3 p.m. EDT on August 8, 2000. Although the primary mission of SeaWiFS is to measure the biology of the ocean, it also provides stunning color imagery of the Earth's surface.  The second image, taken August 8 by TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer), is of the aerosol output (airborne microscopic dust and smoke) from the fires. Click for TOMS homepage. 08 August 2000 Powerful Typhoon Jelawat in the East China Sea on August 7 and 9 Top image is Jelawat on August 7 followed by the bottom image of Jelawat on the 9th. Click on either pic to enlarge the images. 09 August 2000 Dense Smoke Plumes Visible From Western Fires Dense smoke from wildfires burning near the Idaho and Montana border can been seen drifting for hundreds of miles in the top image captured by NASA's SeaWiFS sensor on the OrbView-2 satellite. This image was approximately at 3 p.m. EDT on August 7, 2000.  Click on pic to enlarge image.    The second image, taken August 7 by TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer), is of the aerosol output (airborne microscopic dust and smoke) from the fires. Click for TOMS homepage. 07 August 2000 Extensive Smoke from U.S. Fires Visible from Space Dense smoke from wildfires burning in the western U.S. is visible in this image captured by NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS). The smoke plume in this image extends from northern Wyoming across the state of Montana. Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana and Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota are visible in the upper half of the image. This image was captured about 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 30, 2000.  Click on pic to enlarge image. 30 July 2000 NASA's Terra Satellite Verifies a Less Snowy Winter of 1999/2000 The average March snow line, depicted in red, would normally extend from New England through the Midwest to southern portions of North Dakota, continuing farther south in the western states. The actual snow cover captured from this composite of March 5th through 12th is depicted in white. Click on image to enlarge pic.  Visit the Earth Observatory website for additional info. July 2000 NASA Scientists Detect Rapid Thinning of Greenland's Coastal Ice  Click on pic to enlarge. Details 20 July 2000 The Lion Roars SeaWiFS had a view of a phytoplankton bloom in the North Atlantic that looked a lot like a rampant lion with its forelegs over the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.  Click on pic to enlarge. 17 July 2000 Aurora Dances Over Much of the United States, but Daylight Obscures the View    Details 15 July 2000 Greek Fires Rage SeaWiFS shows smoke continuing to billow across the Mediterranean from the fires on the Greek islands.  This image was captured July 14. Hundreds of wildfires, ignited by a relentless heatwave, continue to blaze in Greece.  The most serious fire was on the resort island of Samos.  About one-fifth of the island has been charred.  SeaWiFS captured the smoke plume emanating from those fires.  Click on picture to enlarge image. 14 July 2000 St. James Bay Colorful James Bay in Canada is captured by SeaWiFS on July 11.  Click on image for larger pic. 11 July 2000 Typhoon Kirogi in the Pacific Typhoon Kirogi heads towards the Phillippines in this image taken by SeaWiFS on July 5.  Click on pic to enlarge image         Typhoon Kirogi closes in on Japan in this July 7 image taken by SeaWiFS.  Click on image to enlarge pic. 07 July 2000

we are interested in what you think, so please send us your comments. Author: Darlene A. Ahalt